St. Paul was born of rich parents in Egypt and became an orphan at the age of fifteen. He had been taught to trust God since he was a very young child. When he was twenty years old, he had to flee to a desert because of a bloody persecution of the Christians. In his great love of God, St. Paul trusted in the Lord to provide him with what he needed to live. He dwelt under a tree that supplied him with fruit for food. A nearby spring gave him water.
When he was one hundred and ten, the great St. Anthony of the Desert went to visit him. St. Anthony tells us how he found out about St. Paul. One day he had a temptation to think that no one else but he had spent his life in the desert as a real hermit. That night God revealed to him that there was another hermit much better than he and so Anthony went to visit him. We are told that while they were talking, a raven dropped a loaf of bread. St. Paul told St. Anthony that for the past sixty years he had been receiving a half of loaf a day. “Now you have come,” he said, “and God has doubled the portion. The Lord is truly good!” After they had eaten, they spent the night in prayer.
St. Paul died at the age of one hundred and thirteen, and St. Anthony buried him.
When St. Anthony returned to his monks, he told them: “Sinner that I am, I do not deserve the name of monk! I have seen another John the Baptist, another St. Paul in the third Heaven!”
St. Paul spent all his long life in prayer and penance to gain glory in heaven. Let us, too, spend our time well, because time spent in praying and in doing our duties for Jesus will win us a treasure in Heaven.
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